Virginia Commonwealth University VCU Scholars Compass Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2008 MATOAKA: Pocahontas in the Age of Identity Matthew Shifflett Virginia Commonwealth University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd Part of the Theatre and Performance Studies Commons © The Author Downloaded from https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/1573 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at VCU Scholars Compass. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of VCU Scholars Compass. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ©Matthew T. Shifflett 2008 All Rights Reserved Matoaka: Pocahontas in the Age of Identity A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University. by Matthew Shifflett BFA, Virginia Commonwealth University, 2003 Director: Dr. Noreen C. Barnes, Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Theatre Virginia Commonwealth University Richmond, Virginia July, 2008 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract................................................................................................................................ Introduction.......................................................................................................................... The State of the Question..................................................................................................... The “Pocahontas Plays”........................................................................................................ Pocahontas in the Age of Identity......................................................................................... Looking Back........................................................................................................................ Works Consulted................................................................................................................... APPENDIX: Matoaka,A Play in Three Acts......................................................................... Abstract MATOAKA: POCAHONTAS IN THE AGE OF IDENTITY By Matthew Shifflett. A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2008. Major Director: Dr. Noreen C. Barnes, Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Theatre This thesis details the labors of research and judgment that informed the writing of Matoaka, a Play in Three Acts. Specifically, the thesis explores the historical puzzles surrounding the life of Pocahontas and justifies the decisions made in dramatizing her life in the aforementioned play. Non-fictional works of the last four hundred years are considered, as well as popular dramatic performances of the nineteenth century. These works are examined closely in order to reveal the Pocahontas story as a point of contact between many concurrent social discourses. Reflections are also offered on the production of the aforementioned play and its reception in Petersburg, Virginia, in April and May of 2007. Finally, the production script of the play itself is offered as an appendix. Introductory Remarks In early 2004, Christopher Shorr and I were discusing production ideas for the as- yet unopened Sycamore Rouge, a theatre and performance venue in Old Town Petersburg, Va. As the only two members of the programming committee, the task fell to us to give potential donors an idea of what type of theatre would be done in the proposed venue and how it might enrich the Petersburg community. We did not fear any dissention from the budget committe, as that was another two-person committe consisting of Christopher and myself. One idea to which we kept returning was the idea of addressing Virginia history from minority or previously-suppressed viewpoints. We decided on a loosely-related triptych of plays that would culminate during Virginia’s 400-year anniversary in the spring of 2007. We planned to premiere a new play in the series each year. With the premiere of the third play in 2007, all three plays would run in repertory through the summer. This third play would focus on the settling of Jamestown from the American Indian perspective. I was interested from the beginning in tackling the problem myself and offered to begin work on the play. Christopher objected strenuously at first, insisting that the play needed to be written by an American Indian playwright. I pushed back, reasoning that for our purposes, it was more important that our playwrights be Virginians, past or present, and there were no American Indian playwrights from the Virginia tribes. I also pointed out that while hiring a white, Anglo-American playwright to write this play may be considered offensive to some, it would be at least equally offensive—if not more so— to equate all American Indian tribes as representing a homogenous perspective. A Blackfoot (or Siksika) playwright would come from an entirely different cultural background than a Hopi playwright, and both of these cultures are worlds away from those of the Eastern Woodlands. By the fall of 2005, I had prevailed in my argument and had begun my research. In addition, Sycamore Rouge had begun informal programming and was slated for a grand opening in January of 2006. As my research expanded to unweildy lengths, the focus of the play gradually tightened, from contact between the two cultures to an exploration of Powhatan’s family and the leaders of the English colony to a play specifically about Pocahontas. After just over a year of research, I began the main writing phase on January 8, 2007. The play, Matoaka, opened at Sycamore Rouge on April 20, 2007, and was directed by Beth VonKelsch. The following thesis addresses my writing process and puts it in historical perspective against the ever-evolving mythology of the Pocahontas story. The major portion of my research for the writing of this play was in reconstructing the events of early Virginia. As my work progressed, I narrowed my focus onto the life of Pocahontas. I discovered that in the transmission of her story over the centuries, fictional work and historiography have intertwined in a continuous discourse. In tracking this discourse, I found her story to be a point of contact between various identities: male and female, European and Indigenous, colonizer and colonized, and many more. In addition to her role as intermediary between identities, Pocahontas accomplished a historic revision of her own identity. I decided, therefore, to treat her story as a site for reflecting the recurrent pattern of self-revision that is at work both in our broader culture and on a more local level as Petersburg, Virginia, tries to revitalize its historic downtown community. In the first chapter, I will give historical context to the development of Pocahontas historiography, identifying the major turning points in the writing and reception of the story, and then look critically at the current state of scholarship. In the second chapter, I turn my attention to dramatic representations of Pocahontas in theatre, paying particular attention to the “Pocahontas plays” of the early nineteenth century. I will probe some of the dramatic uses to which playwrights and others have put the circumstances (both real and imagined) of Pocahontas’s life, while also exploring the sociocultural dimensions of the story’s alternate tellings. In the third chapter, I will talk in more detail about my own process in answering the historical questions inherent within the subject and fusing them to a narrative built to apply to a new sociocultural mindset. In my final chapter, I will reflect on the production process and the play’s reception during its run in Petersburg. As an appendix, I have attached the production draft of the play used in Sycamore Rouge’s production in the spring of 2007. I hope to show in this thesis that the Pocahontas story has for centuries served as a crossroads for multiple discourses including issues of racial harmony and gender equality. I also seek to elucidate and justify my decisions in framing the story as I did as addressing and continuing those discourses. The State Of the Question Although Pocahontas is easily one of the most important characters in the American pantheon, we cannot give a factual account of her life with much conviction. Her legend has been passed on in every form available to America’s mythmakers, from history books to plays to paintings, and in so doing, it has gathered an accretion of conjectural sediment. After 400 years of telling and re-telling, details that often started as wild fancy have calcified into bedrock truths in the American imagination. The historian’s first task in approaching Pocahontas’s life is to simplify the story by reducing it to what is known. Sharon Larkins has provided a very helpful template that does exactly that. What follows is her chronological sketch of Pocahontas’s life. 1. Her birth about 1595. 2. The traditional story of her rescue of Captain John Smith in 1607 and her continued relationship with him and help to the people of Jamestown. 3. Her abduction by Captain Argall in 1612 and subsequent captivity at Jamestown. 4. Her conversion to the Christian faith in 1613 while living in Jamestown. 5. Her marriage in 1614 and the birth of her son in 1615. 6. Her trip to England in 1616 including her success there as an Indian princess. 7. Her death at Gravesend in 1617. (Tilton